Collaborative robots, or cobots for short, seem to be the future of industrial robotics, as more companies enter the market.

In the video above, we look at Yaskawa Motoman’s new entry: the Motoman HC10 cobot for pick and place, machine tending and similar applications.

“This is our first collaborative robot, which complies with all four characteristics of a cobot,” said Bernardo Mendez, senior product manager, Yaskawa Innovation.

Mendez describes these characteristics as:

Power-Force Limitations

Standard and Emergency Stops

Programmed Stops

Hand Guiding

“We designed this robot to try and empower the worker, rather than replace them,” Mendez explained. “It enhances the worker’s experience by helping them with repetitive tasks or tasks that are ergonomically challenging, involving heavy weights and things like that. Doing this, workers can focus on more value-added tasks.”

Mendez said a new teach pendant would be coming to market for the robot soon.

“Eventually we’re going to come out with a very easy to use pendant, that will be more graphically interactive,” he explained. “We’ve also added a few features where you can hand-guide the robot. The advantage is that is that it empowers the user who doesn’t have a lot of knowledge about programming.”

Yaskawa will not develop end effectors for the HC10, but is partnering with companies like Robotiq and other end-of-arm tooling developers. Working with several partners will allow the HC10 to meet a greater diversity of applications thanks to a wider array of end-of-arm tooling.